Circle from Roncesvalles to to SJPP to Roncesvalles

[billmclaughlin]

I read so many postings about getting to SJPP to begin walking and they often involve getting to Roncesvalles and then making a connection to SJPP to set off on the Camino.

I'm a big fan of crossing the Pyrenees on foot and therefore of starting out from SJPP, but I wonder....has anyone every started by walking one route from Roncesvalles to SJPP and then the other route back to Roncessvalles? Is walking in the "wrong" direction taboo? I find the idea of starting with this circle intriguing.

 

[grayland]

I did run into a guy who was walking back toward SJPdP from Roncesvalles in a snow storm on the route Napoleon. He had walked over with wife and mother in law the afternoon before On the Valcalos route. This was 1 May in 2012.

He was just making sure they got over OK. They were going on to Santiago.
I think he had left his car in St Jean and needed to return home.

 

[waveprof]

I'm sure you'd get some strange looks, but it actually (oddly) makes a good bit of sense. It is cheaper than the other options, shoots a day (but most ways of getting there would), and allows you to see more. The only knock I can see is that it requires you to be in Roncevalles fairly early in the day, plus, you know, the walking

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Having walked up that hill, I would never walk down. Down is harder for me than up, and it is sustained downward foot pounding for hours. It would make my toes hit the end of my boot, cause heel lifting, and probably remove a couple of toenails. Candachu to Somport and Cruz de Ferro to Molinaseca are my limit. That said, it might be a lot of fun for others! Buen camino.

 

[nreyn12]

Oh goodness, why not? Last year on the Camino I saw a great increase in the number of people walking back from Santiago. This is actually how it was done before all the easy transportation options existed in Spain. They would have all eventually had to cross back over the Pyrenees.

The Pyrenees are filled with walking trails, with people walking in all directions. You are likely to be the only person walking towards SJPP, but think of all the great conversations you'll have!

The only question is which route to take in which direction. Going from SJPP to Roncesvalles, the Napoleon route (high road) is very steep up for 8 kms, then steep-ish up for another 13 kms, then very steeply down for 6 kms. The Valcarlos route, or low road, is 15 kms of easy ups and downs, then 6 kms of very steeply up, then 2 kms fairly easy down. (Give or take.)

Reverse that and you get: high road 6 kms up, 21 kms down, and low road 2 kms up, 6 kms down, and 15 kms easy.

I'm not good on descents, so I would probably take the low road from Roncesvalles to SJPP, and the high road back. The descents will be steeper, but shorter. You'll just have to remember to stop and turn around for the views on the high road!
Nancy

 

[Hopeful Australian]

Hi, just had to chime in here. I've just stared reading 'Clear Waters Rising: A Mountain Walk Across Europe ' by Nicholas Crane. ( Ibought it second hand very cheaply online.) In 1996 he started walking at Finisterre and walked every inch of hte way to Turkey. I have just got to the part where he parts from the Camino, though of course it was His Camino in his own way, and he remarks on the number of people who told him he was going the wrong way, heading TOWARD France. I think there would be many such amusing conversations (for the walker) / baffling ones (for just about everybody else), but of course it's obvious that in days gone by, those who did get home had to head the other way.

I've often wondered whether, like some people after natural or other disaters, there were ever pilgrims who just didn't ever go home. The ones who lived, I mean. They may have just found other lives that pleased them more. Maybe someone will write a novel about it.

Anyway, Crane's book is quite interesting for this camino-walker, at least, as he is a geographer as well as a general writer. He talks about the landscape in a way I would never be able to see it without is guidance. Although I don't know yet if it's a strong theme in the book, he contrasts the various world he observes traces of, or walks through in real life: the world of Islam and Christianity, the old ways of life he sees with mining and shepherds co-esisting sort of in Spain, and later one side of the great divide of Europe and the ohter, as well as the remnants of the Iron Curtain.

I've fund that books about walking have become fascinating to me.

So, in summary, as everyone here keeps saying ... it is YOUR Camino. Maybe we need to get cards printed with that sentence in various languages.